Comments

I would like to see some changes to the file manger in the area of network. Specifically making it easier for a user to add, delete and modify ftp and websites. I haven't messed with that area of file manger for quite a while but the last time I did it was a very convoluted affair to modify any thing I added to that area. Attached is a snapshot of the area I mean.

I'd say that a bookmark manager that can show subdirectories would be better. But I'd ignore it all for a bookmark manager that isn't glacially slow. I only have a little over 10,000 lines in my bookmarks.xml, but editing and moving around bookmarks is incredibly slow, making the categorization of them a real pain.

My bet is that for hierarchical and linear data like bookmarks are, KDE DB Framework would be used...one day. XML is usually better for data exchangeability, object-relational database engines are better for storage.

You would be surprised. Some have as many as 9000 bookmarks, BTW -- see http://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=59401. So if you feel bored one day, you may want to consider trying making QDom dumping faster instead of writing spatial file managers :-). I think there were BC difficulties w/that when I took a quick look, though. Hmm, I hear Frerich is hacking on the editor, though.

Well, if the thing was more user friendly, I'd use it for bookmarking ftp sites. Which is what I like it for. It is a bit redundant for websites but does remind me of how you can have Windows display it's "Favorites" on the side. But then there is already a button for that, IIRC.

It's not at all redundant. You can have trees of directories in there, and it's possible to have your tree start at any subdirectory (eg: KDE mirror directory). You can't do that with bookmarks.

I find the feature very useful - I use it for various home directories on other machines (ie: sftp://user@host) as well as links to mirrors of KDE and SuSE ftp sites. I've been using it for quite a while now.

The feature itself is IMO quite user friendly, but configuring it certainly isn't. While I'm quite able to go edit a desktop file by hand to get what I want, it certainly shouldn't be the normal way for a user to set anything up.

I know it's not new, just very cumbersome to use. IIRC the last time I fiddled with it I had to drill down/hunt for a number of config files in .kde to change things. Not something a normal user should have to do.

For example, a user creates a new folder, realizes it was named incorrectly then tries to delete it. You can't from the desktop. You have to monkey with config files to get rid of it or right click and move it to another folder and then delete it.

Then it would be better to file a wishlist item or discuss this on 'kde-usability'.

> just very cumbersome to use. IIRC the last time I fiddled with it I had to
> drill down/hunt for a number of config files in .kde to change things. Not
> something a normal user should have to do.

IIUC, this is used to for your network configuration and what you get as a default is just a demo. Probably not a good idea -- it might be better to leave it blank.

Yes, this appears to be an unfinished feature.

First, there are major problems with the RMB menu.

> For example, a user creates a new folder, realizes it was named incorrectly
> then tries to delete it. You can't from the desktop. You have to monkey with config files to get rid of it or right click and move it to another folder and then delete it.

And your example is the first one, there is no: "Move to Trash" option.

Most of these options in the RMB menu are not usefull here and should be removed (somehow). IMHO, what is needed is a GUI configure tool for this, and IATM that the menu editor for KDE-3.1.x could be modified to accomplish this function -- just remove the features not needed and modify it so that it could only create folders (with names in the '.directory' file) and URL 'desktop' files (it also needs to be able to edit the global configuration if run as root).

Any chance we will see http://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=15848 in KDE 3.3? This is the only feature I miss from Firefox and that keeps me using it though I think Konqui is more elegant, nicer and faster.

I also used to think that it would be nice to have ad blocking right in Konqueror, but I recently started using Privoxy.

Configuration of it is a bit more complex than just the browser, but it does allow much more fine-grained control. It also allows me to keep the same ad blocking regardless of the browser I'm using at the moment, and *all* users of the computer get the benefits of it.

Actually from a technical support perspective this feature is the worse feature EVER enabled by default into Windows 2000. 3 yrs ago while I was doing technical support I wouldn't believe the number of users that would call in because they could find an Icon or their toolbar anymore --- And it was always because they had dragged it accidently somewhere else.

I wouldn't disable it completely by default. I think the problematic part is being able to drag things out of menus. This goes against the old behaviour of holding the mouse button down while selecting something from a menu, and is confusing at the least.

Menus should be enabled as drop targets though. Eg: drag a file/program, hold it over the K menu (which springs open), and then you can drop it somewhere in there which would create a link to the original item. After some visual feedback (eg: new entry is highlighted for a second or blinks twice) the menu closes again.

There is similar functionality in WinXP; entries can be removed with right-click->delete. While I'm at it, I'd quite like to see something like Apple's spring-loaded folders too - it'd be nice if all the things that opened as the result of a single drag then closed themselves again afterwards. If the drag knows what it opened, it could send a close signal when it's done. Of course, this functionality would have to be configurable too...

Well this problem seams to be with many things including KDE - we have 50 desktops running SUSE Linux and Windows XP (dual boot). Many users in the Windows camp have the problems you describe - but I have noticed that the lack of drag & drop in the bookmarks menu in Konqueror and in the kmenu seams to confuse them (I do not support these machines any more, but when I did, editing the menus was a question I got all the time).

I had this idea for some time already, it just so happened that appropriate discussion never came up.

A lot of times I fine that I need to move more than 1 icon/menu item.
After pressing a menu hot key (e.g. CNTRL), the menu would expand about 16 pixels, and a new column would be formed on the right. In that area there would be check boxes. After you release hot key (CNTRL), the are with checkboxes slides back and you can drag items, or choose a different menu and select some more checkboxes :D. It is not really hard to implement, just someone have to do it.

Works fine for me. Get a nice little Java applet that asks me to move my mouse around for a bit, then shows a login screen asking for an account number. That's as far as I can go as I don't have an account with them.